


are we out of the woods yet? (michael interlude)

by justsomejerk



Series: malex: out of the woods [2]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alex Manes (Mentioned) - Freeform, Gen, M/M, Malex (Mentioned), Michael Has Some Realizations About Miscommunication, Rosa Loves Pod-Related Expressions, This Fic is Sponsored by La Croix, post S1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23055367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justsomejerk/pseuds/justsomejerk
Summary: After his recent encounter with Alex, Michael can't stop thinking about it. Isobel and Rosa talk it over with him.
Relationships: Isabel Evans & Michael Guerin, Michael Guerin & Rosa Ortecho, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: malex: out of the woods [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1656865
Comments: 5
Kudos: 72





	are we out of the woods yet? (michael interlude)

**Author's Note:**

> I guess I'm fixing it.
> 
> Title from Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods.

Michael has been staring down at this jeep’s engine for at least 20 minutes without seeing a thing, or even moving. He just keeps playing a supercut of Alex’s face, his moaning, his words from the other night.

It just makes no sense. _Alex_ is the one who always leaves _him_. Why is he mad? Okay, yeah, dating Maria was messed up. He couldn’t help that he fell for her, but he probably didn’t need to pursue her the way he did when he and Alex were still doing– well. Whatever it was they were doing. But _Alex_ is the one who has always been ashamed of _him_! 

Michael drops the wrench he’s clutching tightly in his newly-healed hand and looks around the empty yard as he clenches and unclenches his fist. It’s midday and the sun is beating down on him, reflecting off the silver chrome of the hanging installation in the middle of the yard that Sanders has never fully explained. 

Might as well take a break, seeing as he’s not getting any work done with the memory of Alex Manes underneath him running through his mind.

Cleaning his hands on a rag, he throws it back down and heads to the covered garage, craving a beer. Only when he has his hands on the fridge handle does he recall Isobel storming in here two weeks ago to clean out his liquor supply, insisting they both needed to ‘make changes’ in their lives. Apparently less alcohol is the change she’d decided he needed to make. 

She’d replaced it with cartons upon cartons of La Croix, and she did so without even a mocking smile on her face. She _actually_ believed Michael should spend his days drinking this tasteless carbonated garbage. 

As he sighs, surveys his selection, and reluctantly grabs the mango flavour, a car pulls up behind him. It’s Isobel, along with her new sidekick.

He doesn’t like thinking about the month or so following Max’s death, when he and Isobel failed to be there for one another in the way they should have been. He was too busy drinking to avoid thinking of his mother’s beautiful loving face, not to mention alienating Maria and Alex.

While he was doing that, she had developed an unexpected friendship with Rosa Ortecho. She’s never fully explained what happened, just that Rosa had been unexpectedly kind and supportive to her, despite Isobel’s part in covering up her murder. It was strange to see Isobel so close to another woman – she’d always avoided female friends. But he has to admit he likes the new side of her he sees when she’s with Rosa. Even with Liz and Maria lately, too. 

They are both already smirking as they make their way over to his spot under the shade, and somehow he already knows this is about Alex. Their little group of aliens and alien-adjacent humans has gotten close enough that gossip spreads fast, and he knows Kyle is usually Alex’s first call when he needs to talk. Then Kyle talks to Rosa, and she talks to Isobel. 

Sometimes Michael really hates the small town rumour mill.

“I hear you got burnt by our mutual friend recently.” Rosa smiles up at him in delight, taking her place leaning beside him. He gives her his patented _‘Ortecho, I_ don’t _have time for this’_ expression before bringing the can to his mouth for a sip. A sip that is interrupted when Rosa swoops in to grab it and claims it for herself. 

“Why did you bring a zombie with you, Iz?”

“I’m more of a ghost, really.” Michael rolls his eyes as he turns around to grab another drink from the fridge, tossing a can of Isobel’s favourite – coconut – to her before opening his own. 

“Enough with the banter, we need to talk about Alex.” Isobel’s tone is stern as she stands across from them, daintily popping the tab on her can with her mind so effortlessly that it makes Michael’s eye twitch. He still hasn’t processed how he feels about her powers evolving with such speed, while moving the Airstream still takes enough out of him to require a few swigs of acetone afterwards. 

“We really don’t.”

“Michael.” The exasperation and concern in her tone keeps him from offering a sharp retort. “Aren’t you tired of this? Don’t you just want to be happy with him? Because I think you do, but you need to _listen_ to one another for that to happen.”

“Listen to each other? I apologized! That’s what happened. Everything seemed good, we were– I mean, it felt like we were getting on track. Then he just went off on me. I mean, I may have said the wrong thing, but I didn’t- I mean, it wasn’t like-” Michael sighs deeply, giving up on his argument and instead nursing his drink, wishing it were a beer. 

“We know what happened, Guerin. Do you really think jealous and possessive is a good look on you?” Michael side-eyes Rosa. She has this way of being blunt without being rude or cruel that he finds himself appreciating. Apparently resurrection has softened some of her sharper edges. 

“I may have said some things wrong, okay? But why am I the only one being punished here? I’ve spent ten years never saying no to him! He was always coming back and taking whatever he wanted from me and never telling anyone about us.”

“Michael. Have you thought about any of this from Alex’s perspective?”

“Of course!”

Isobel gives him a doubtful look. “Really though? Do you think he thought about it as ‘taking whatever he wanted from you’? Have you considered he thought of it as you both stealing time together whenever you could? Not to mention being out as a gay Air Force captain with a father like his in this town isn’t exactly simple. Especially when neither of you were even willing to discuss the terms of your relationship, or if it even _was_ a relationship. Did you ever even tell him you wanted to be his boyfriend? That you wanted a long-distance relationship?”

Michael is slack-jawed at her speech. “Whose side are you on?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m on the side of my brothers being happy. I made the mistake of following your lead for ten years by not bringing him up, even when I knew it could help you to talk about it. I did it with Max too, with Liz, and I’m done. Look, the thing is, sometimes you have trouble seeing from anyone’s perspective but your own; I’m just trying to remind you that Alex probably sees things differently.” 

“Yeah, Guerin. Aliens haven’t actually cornered the market on trauma and pain, even here in Roswell.” Rosa nudges him in the ribs and he playfully swats her hand away. 

He shakes his head, almost amused if he weren’t so irritated. “It’s not that I think I haven’t done anything wrong. Or that I could have done better. But Alex is the one who has always left me behind. He made me feel like a dirty little secret. Remember me telling you about how he reacted that morning at the Airstream when you showed up, Iz? He was so ashamed that anyone might know he was sleeping with someone like me.”

Isobel looks like she’s about to speak, but instead, Rosa cuts past her. “What makes you think he was ashamed of you?”

Michael locks his jaw as he glares at her, then looks back at Isobel as if to say, did you _really_ have to bring her? He takes another sip of his drink, makes a face, and responds: “Maybe the fact that later that night, he broke up with me by saying he can’t be with a criminal?” 

This time Isobel jumps in before Rosa can have her say. “Michael, you _are_ a criminal. You literally committed a felony while on a date with him. Which I’m not judging you for!” She throws her hands up at the defensive posture Michael adopts at her words. “You do what you have to do to get by. But doing that in front of Alex, in front of his _dad_... you have to admit that was a pretty brilliant self-fulfilling prophecy, wasn’t it? You think Alex is ashamed of you, that he’s going to leave you, so you give him a proper reason to do just that.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he can tell Rosa is smirking with the way she straightens and crosses her arm tightly in satisfaction. 

But Isobel isn’t finished. Not by a long shot. Michael is really starting to regret those ten years he made her avoid the subject of Alex Manes, because his sister clearly has a _lot_ of thoughts to share now that it’s out in the open. 

“And while we’re on the subject of Alex keeping you two a secret, a few hours after he _supposedly_ freaked out about me finding out about you two–because apparently you never bothered to tell him I’ve known since graduation–he took you on a date in front of me and the entire Air Force. You freakin’ shared popcorn, Michael! Don’t think I missed that little detail from the stage!”

Michael finds himself speechless at that point. 

He’d never thought about it that way. 

Did Alex show up at the drive-in hoping that Michael would be there so he could make a show of being in public with him? Was Michael actually so thick headed that he missed the time Alex went out of his way to prove he’s _not_ ashamed of him?

The realization that there are even more miscommunications to work through leaves him hanging his head and mumbling a dejected, “ _Fuuuck_ ,” into his La Croix. 

Rosa’s arm comes around his shoulder as she earnestly says, “There there, my pod pal. We can figure this out.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next up: Alex has a few revelations as well.


End file.
